Seeing Double
by Blackrose715378
Summary: Ok, the quick updating may be ending because vacation is over. Insert crying noises here. Anyway, hopefully I'll have time during the week to write the last chapter.
1. Jet and Eleanor

_A/N: Hiya! Meant to actually write this last night, but some stuff happened, and I woke up in my closet. Don't ask. The point is, things didn't go as planned, and this didn't get written until tonight. By the way, UKHoneyB knows where a certain name is from... _

Chapter 1

"Remind me again why we're not out there looking for them," Kat said through gritted teeth as she threw another punch towards Rachel's head.

"Because," Rachel replied calmly, "we're too close to the situation." She dodged a high kick. "And, as you may recall, we were on the case for a while until _someone_ had to go ballistic and put her fist through a very expensive piece of tracking equipment."

"I hardly touched it. Anyway, I don't see Jefferson taking _himself_ off the mission."

"That's different," Rachel said slowly.

"Like hell it is."

Deciding to end the conversation at that point, Rachel faked a punch, then went down on the mat and swept her right leg into Kat's ankles, knocking her off her feet.

Kat hit the mat with an "oof", and Rachel got up, offering Kat a hand.

"Max always fell for that one, too."

"Falls."

"Excuse me?"

"You said fell. Past tense. Falls was the word you were looking for," Kat said coldly.

Rachel looked startled. "I meant nothing by it."

Kat glared at her for a second or two, but then her face softened. "I know, sorry. I just-"

"I know."

The two stood there silently, and then Kat took a playful swipe at Rachel's head.

"Go again?"

"Ms. Ryan, I am not Mr. Steel. I require rest between sessions, and I recommend you do the same."

"Fine," Kat scowled. She hated it when Rachel called her 'Ms. Ryan'.

The two left the sparring room and started to turn down the hall leading to the break room, when Kat stopped.

"What's wrong?" Rachel asked, wary of any attempt Kat might make to trick her into some other competition.

"Let's go see how Jefferson's doing."

Rachel raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.

"Come on, we should go see him."

"No, I don't think we should."

"Why not?" Kat whined.

"Do you think he'll really be in that great of a mood, considering circumstances?"

"No, but we should go see him anyway."

"Why?"

"To see if...maybe... I want to help look for Max and Berto, all right?!"

"Jefferson will call us when he need-"

Just then Smith's voice came over the loudspeaker. "Kat Ryan and Rachel Leeds report to my office."

Kat looked at Rachel, an amuse look on her face.

"Probably just wants to ask what happened to the soda machine yesterday," Rachel muttered as the two turned and started walking back the way they had come.

"Hey, the soda machine wasn't my fault, all right?! It ate my money!"

"So that justified pushing it down the stairs?!"

"I can explain that..."

Rachel stopped and turned to Kat, arms folded across her chest. "And that explanation would be...?"

"Bet I can beat you to Jefferson's office!" Kat yelled over her shoulder as she took off at a run.

"No running in the halls!" Rachel yelled back, still standing where Kat had left her. She looked around, but saw nobody else nearby. "Oh, why not," she muttered, and then ran after Kat.

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A few minutes later, Kat and Rachel were sitting in Jefferson Smith's office. (The race had been a tie, even though Rachel said that qualified as a win for her, because Kat got a head start).

"You wanted to see us, sir?" Rachel asked as she and Kat sat down in chairs in front of the desk. Rachel noticed there was another chair in the corner with splintered arm rests. _Probably the chair Max sits in when he comes_, she smiled despite the situation.

Jefferson followed her gaze to the chair, and rolled his eyes. Clearing his throat, he began. "I've been noticing," he said, looking at Rachel, "that your performance level, Rachel, has dropped since Max and Berto have gone missing. Work has been piling up on your desk, your office is a mess, and you've missed the last three conferences."

Rachel opened her mouth to speak, but Jefferson held up a hand and continued.

"Rachel hasn't been doing her work because the two of you have been sparring so often. The reason you two have been sparring so often is that Kat doesn't have a sparring partner at this time. So..." he reached over and pushed a button on his desk. There was a buzzing sound as the door came open, and Kat walked in.

Kat stood up quickly, knocking over her chair, while Jefferson watched, amused, and Rachel looked quickly from Jefferson to Kat to Kat, but remained in her seat.

"WHAT THE-?!"

"Kat?" Jefferson addressed the Kat currently on the verge of hysterics, "this is your new sparring partner."

Kat and Rachel then got another surprise as Rachel walked through the doorway, nodded at Rachel, and took Kat by the wrist, moving her out of the way so the door could close behind them.

"And Rachel?" Jefferson continued, enjoying the looks on Rachel and Kat's faces more than he had enjoyed anything for a while, "Rachel, this is your new office assistant."

"Care to explain what's going on, Mr. Smith?" Rachel asked, not taking her eyes off either of the newcomers.

"They're you're clones." There was another buzz as Dr. Yevshenko opened the door and came into the office. "Mr. Smith and I believed that you two would be better off with partners, and for your current needs, namely sparring and office assistance, your own personalities were ideal."

"Yes, but...cloning?!" Rachel said, shocked.

"Yes and no," Yevshenko answered. "It's a new technology Dr. Martinez and I had been developing. It works on the same theories of cloning, but the process is much quicker, and works by gamma ray..." she stopped, seeing the looks on Kat and Rachel's faces. "In simple terms, yes, they're your clones. Kat, your clone's name is Jet, and Rachel, your clone's name is Eleanor. If there are any problems you may come see me in the lab."

Rachel and Kat stared at their clones, stunned, until Kat broke the ice.

"So, want to go spar?" she said, addressing her clone.

"If you can handle losing," Jet replied.

"As if," Kat said, as they both took off.

Rachel and Eleanor rolled their eyes. "Figures."


	2. Back To Berto, Max, and of course Abigai...

A/N: All right. This one isn't that great either, but I'm trying. Thanks to all my reviewers, by the way. I usually reply to all my reviewers and thank them, but "okta" was anonymous, so I'll just say thanks to her/him/it here. Thanks!

Chapter 2

"Berto, he's doing it again," whined a voice over the intercom in Berto's room.

"What do you want me to do? I told you to take it easy on him."

"If I had wanted to take it easy on someone I wouldn't have brought him here in the first place."

"Well, now you're stuck with him."

"GET DOWN HERE RIGHT NOW AND FIX HIM OR I'LL SET UP A SPARRING MATCH BETWEEN YOU AND THE TOASTER OVEN!"

Berto jumped off his cot and took off down the hall towards Abigail's wing of the building. He wasn't exactly devastated to leave his room. After he had been brought to what he assumed was a DREDD base six weeks ago, he had been given his own room, because he was needed for Max's "upkeep". The room he had been given was pretty nice, the only problem being that it was EMP equipped to stop him from using any types of electronics to foil any attempts to get a signal to N-Tek. This was also very effective in sending him into what he had named "electronic withdrawal".

When he arrived to where the intercom page had come from, he saw Max sitting on the floor against the wall, with Abigail standing a few yards away, arms crossed, poking him in the side with her foot.

"You're not recharging him right, that's why he keeps doing this. Aren't you supposed to be the genius?"

"It's not my fault the equipment's faulty. Our transphasik generator doesn't work that great, and I worked on that myself," Berto talked as he gingerly picked up the Dread-version of the portable transphasik generator from the corner of the room.

"You're wrong. This is the same as yours, only better," Abigail argued as she watched as Berto opened the laptop-like device and plugged it into Max's biolink. He tapped in a code, and then sat down next to Max.

"Hey, Bro," Max said sleepily, waving at Berto.

Berto remained silent as he alternately monitored the progress of the generator to the read-out on Max's biolink.

"Oh, come on,, Berto. Say hi to your hermano, won't you?" Abigail smirked, obviously amused with the disunity of the seemingly indestructible Team Steel.

"After all," she continued, "it's not his fault he's had a little change of heart."

"Yeah, not my fault," Max echoed her, still sounding lethargic.

Berto didn't respond to either of them, but his blood boiled at the sound of Abigail saying his nickname for Max. He sat in silence for five minutes until he heard a low beep from the generator. Glancing over at Max, he saw that he was now completely alert and looking around. They made eye contact, but Max quickly broke it, and stared at his feet instead.

"Sorry, Bro."

Berto looked at him sideways. "If you're so sorry, why don't you snap out of it and get us out of here."

Max didn't have a response to that, and stayed silent.

Abigail watched the two for a moment, then got impatient. "All right," she said, gesturing towards Max, "up. Let's go again."

"I'm still too tired," Max said, yawning. "I want to sleep."

"GET UP!!!"

"Abigail, dear..." drawled a voice from a darkened corner of the room, "be considerate of our guest."

Berto glanced at Max, looking for any sign of his old hate for Dread. There was a little flicker, but Berto couldn't be sure exactly what it meant. Maybe just recognition.

Abigail, meanwhile, spun around, unaware that she had been being observed. "I am being considerate," she pouted. "I gave him a few minutes to wake up, didn't I?"

"Ah yes, and before that was that oh so sportsmanship-like kick to the wrist."

Berto looked at Max's biolink, surprised that he hadn't noticed the small but noticeable dent in the metal right above the Josh/Max button.

"You kicked his biolink?!" Berto yelled.

Abigail rounded on him. "Oh, I'm sorry, did I mess up your science project?"

"HE'S NOT A SCIENCE PROJECT!"

"Well, let's ask him, shall we?" Abigail turned to Max, still slouched against the wall. "Max?"

Max looked up, an occupied look on his face. "Hmm?"

"Are you Berto's science project?" She asked in a kindergarten-teacher-talking-to-student-voice.

Max seemed to space out for a second, and didn't answer her. This peaked Berto's interest, being the first time since leaving the rainforest that he had seen Max not automatically obey Abigail.

Abigail looked frustrated. "MAX!"

Max sat for another moment and then abruptly shook his head. "No, I'm not."

"WHAT?!" Abigail fumed, drew her foot back to kick Max, was deflected by a disapproving glance from Dread, and then stormed off into the hallway.

Dread seemed to be interested in Max's new change in consciousness. He got up from the chair he had been sitting in and walked over. "So, you're not a science project, Mr. Steel?"

Max looked up. "Nope."

"What makes you say that?" Dread asked, eyebrows raised.

"The voices," Max replied simply.

"The voices told you to say that you're not a science project?"

"Yep."

Dread was silent for a minute. Berto could see that he was doing some heavy thinking.

Finally, Dread seemed to reach the end of his thought process. "All right. Mr. Steel, report to the lab, why don't you have a little chat with 378? Dr. Martinez, please follow me."


	3. Poor Nez

A/N: All right, Rachel doesn't exactly strike me as a Beatle fan, but I am writing this fic, and I have decided that she is. Oh, by the way, I've been reading a few Metal Gear fics, but have no clue as to what or who anyone(thing) is. Anyone care to explain? I know it's a video game or whatever, but that's about it. All right then. Onward!

Chapter 3

Back at Jefferson's office, Rachel opened the door to leave, and Jefferson watched as she instead stood still for a few seconds, and then turned and sat back down in her chair, letting the door fall shut. Eleanor sat next to her, and Jefferson looked from Rachel to Eleanor, admiring the work of modern (well, modern by N-Tek standards anyway) technology.

"Something I can help you with, Ms. Leeds?" he addressed Rachel.

"Um, yes. I was wondering how deeply identical Kat and I are to our clones."

"Well, I've been told, they have the same exact personality, thought process, and memories you had at the point in time when you were cloned."

"Which was...?"

"Yesterday."

Rachel turned to look at her clone. "All right then," she began, "if you are really, well, _me_, you should know all the names of the Beatles."

Eleanor smiled. "John Lennon, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, and Paul McCartney, of course."

"What are my parents' names?"

"_Our_ parents names are Elizabeth and James."

"And our sibilings?"

"Our only living sibling is our older brother Stuart."

Jefferson's attention was caught by the "_living_ sibling" part. He hadn't known anything about Rachel's home life, much less that she had a dead sibling. She had never brought anything about it before. But then again why would she have?

"Um, Mr. Smith? Is everything all right?"

Jefferson was startled. He wasn't usually the one dozing off. "Oh, sorry. It's been a long six weeks."

"I know," she said softly. She hadn't realized until now how tired he looked.

"Was there anything else you wanted to ask me?"

"Yes. How exactly are Kat and I going to explain the fact that there are two of us walking around?"

"I can answer that," Eleanor responded. "Jet and I have our own quarters in this part of the building. We're not supposed to leave the building unless absolutely necessary, and even if we do we can't be seen together by people outside N-Tek. We're allowed to tell people involved with the secret side of N-Tek about it, though." She noted the surprised look on Rachel's face and then added "Jet and I were briefed already. I can answer any questions you might have."

"Thank you, perhaps later."

"Will that be all, Ms. Leeds?"

"Yes. Unless you need help with anything..."

"No, but thank you. I stand by my decision to keep you and Kat out of this one. I know you're under enough stress without being on duty as it is."

"I want to help out."

"I know. "

Rachel hesitated, wanting to insist to be put back on duty, but at the same time knowing that it wouldn't do any good. "Don't work yourself to hard."

Jefferson smiled sadly, but didn't say anything.

Eleanor gave Smith a nod, and then followed Rachel out of the office.

Once outside the office, Rachel turned to Eleanor. "Well," she said thoughtfully, "I have needed someone to talk to, if you don't mind."

"Who would understand better?"

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Jake Nez (haven't heard from him in a while, have we?) walked down the hall towards Rachel's office. She had left the morning's meeting early without her copy of the minutes, which she was supposed to transfer onto her computer. He paused outside her office as he heard music coming from inside. _Sky of blue! Sea of green! And our yellow, and our yellow, submarine, submarine, waha!_

He paused before knocking on the door. He had never known Rachel to do anything at work that wasn't strictly work-related. He _knew_ she had never before listened to music on the job. Finally, he knocked timidly on the door. No one seemed to have heard him, so he opened the door himself, and saw Rachel arranging things in a filing cabinet, humming along with the music.

"Uh-Rachel?"

Rachel turned around. "No, actually, I'm Eleanor."

Jake backed up "Look, I knew you were into role-playing when we were going out, but-"

"Oh for crying out loud, Jake," Rachel got up from where she had been sitting behind her desk and stood up, crossing her arms. "For your information, _I_ am Rachel, and _she_ is my clone, Eleanor."

Jake opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off.

"Yes, I have a clone, no, she hasn't been here long, only since this afternoon, and if you will kindly hand me my minutes from this morning's meeting, you can be on your way."

Jake looked down at the papers in his hands; he had forgotten all about why he had come in the first place. He walked them over to Rachel's desk, and she snatched them out of his hands.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Nez."

Nez walked out in a daze, deciding to go off and sit down somewhere quiet until he understood what the hell was going on.

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Back in Rachel's office, Eleanor walked over and turned off the radio. "Well, that was cold," she commented.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Rachel answered, absently shuffling papers and opening drawers in her desk.

"Rachel, in case you forgot, I know you. I _am_ you. That was not how we usually act, was it?"

Rachel sighed. "All right, I just...I don't want Jake to ask me out again now that Max is temporarily out of the picture, because if he does, it'll be like...saying Max isn't coming back."

Eleanor walked over, took hold of Rachel's arm, and guided her to the chair by the door. Taking the minutes out of her hand, she went over to the computer and started typing them up.

"What are you doing?" Rachel asked, sounding exasperated.

"I'm supposed to be your office, assistant, aren't I? Now, think about what you're saying. A part of you thinks that you'll never see Max again, and don't tell me wrong because we think the same way."

"How am I supposed to respond to that?" Rachel asked, throwing up her hands.

"Your not. So, if we know John Dread, we know that he can't help but flaunt his accomplishments, correct?"

"Correct. So you're saying that sooner or later, he'll want to show off that he has control of Max in some way."

"And when he does, we'll have a fix on Max, and then we just have to get him back."

"That's the hard part."

"No, that's the easy part. Max is still Max, no matter what. We'll get him back."

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Nez walked down the hallway towards the training room, still weirded out about the whole double-Rachel experience. He had tried to work out what the explanation for cloning Rachel would be, but he couldn't think of it. It was insanity! She seemed to be all-knowing at times as it was. Why did N-Tek need two of her?

Making his way to the training room, he figured that some weight lifting would tire him out. Maybe then he would be able to make sense out of all of this if he wasn't so energetic from that last cup of coffee. _You had to have that third cup, didn't you?_ He cursed himself.

Finally, he decided that he would just stay away from clones altogether. It was just plain unnatural. _At least Rachel's the only one with a clone,_ he thought. Hearing women's voices coming from inside the training room, he brightened. At least he could show off while weight-lifting. He was feeling better already.

He walked into the room and immediately saw Kat sparring with...Kat. Nez went and sat in the corner and cried.


	4. Revised Chapter

_A/N: All right, I've decided to redo the ending of this chapter, because it…well…sucked. All right, some of you might think all of my writing sucks anyway, but I don't care! Mwhahahah! Anyway, here's the revised chapter, and I will hope it will suck less. _

_P.S: In case anyone cares, I got the author of _The Divine Comedy_ wrong. It was Dante, not Cervantes. _

"I just want my arm back," -Vitriol

Chapter 4

"So, Dr. Martinez, why don't you tell me what's wrong with our portable generator?"

"Nothing's wrong with it. You heard me tell Abigail. Ours never exactly worked that great either."

"I've been told it worked better than ours is working now."

"Knock-offs are never as good as the original."

Dread frowned. "True."

Berto sat across from the man behind the desk, fidgeting nervously. He _had_ noticed the DREDD version of the portable generator had been having less of an effect lately, but he hadn't mentioned it for obvious reasons. Every time Max was recharged, it seemed to be wearing off faster and faster.

Berto was painfully aware of the fact that Dread was staring at him even while he was lost in thought. That severely freaked him out. However, he was finally replaced as the center of attention as a loud beeping sound came from a gadget on Dread's desk.

Dread tapped a button twice, and then spoke into a microphone on the gadget. "Psycho," he warned.

"What?!" came the angry reply.

"You know what."

"I wasn't anywhere near him!"

John Dread casually leaned over and looked at a monitor next to his computer. "Mr. Steel is in the lab area, and you are in the hallway ten yards away. I believe the specified distance was thirty yards."

"I wasn't doing anything!"

"Why are you there, Psycho?" the warning tone had returned to Dread's voice.

There was no reply, but Berto could hear loud crashing noises coming from the other end of the line.

Berto tried not to smile, but he couldn't help but find humor in the fact that while Max and Psycho were now on the same side, Dread still had to impose a restraining order on the cyborg.

"I suppose it is rather funny." Dread nodded. "Well, if you're not going to tell me anything of consequence, you may return to your quarters."

Berto hesitated, but then realized Dread would know where he was anyway. "I was actually thinking about seeing how Max is doing."

"Max is being worked on right now. We have a nanotech expert of our own. She's quite brilliant. You two might have a chat sometime, but not today. I must request that you return to your room."

Berto paused, then nodded and left the room, bumping into Psycho as he shut the door behind him.

"Hey, watch where you're going!" the latter growled.

"Sorry!"

Psycho handed him a folded up piece of paper. "Give this to Steel."

Berto watched as Psycho stormed down the hallway, and then unfolded the paper. A drawing of Max's head on a stick was displayed in what looked like red sharpie pen, with the words 'You should have given my boot back earlier," printed above it.

"I didn't know you were an artist!" Berto yelled after Psycho.

Psycho spun around and started stomping back towards Berto.

"AH!" Berto refolded the paper as he ran back down the hall and barricaded himself into his room, tossing the paper in the garbage pail. He flopped down onto his bed, and fell asleep.

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(I've been told other ways to do dividers, but I've decided I like my L's.)

"So, Max, have you been feeling any…different lately?"

"What, besides being tired all the time?"

"Yes, besides that," Melissa (378) stared intently at him.

"I don't know," Max looked puzzled, "what kind of different?"

"Will you stop answering my questions with questions?!"

"Sorry."

Melissa took a break to calm herself down. She wasn't making as much progress as she had wanted to. She guessed she had miscalculated in the formula for the injections he had been getting. If it wasn't for that stupid cyborg…

"Can I go now?"

"No, not yet, I still have to ask you a few more questions."

"Like…?"

"Like, how do you feel about being here?"

"What-"

"If you ask 'what do you mean' one more time, I will call Psycho down here and _then_ see how you feel about being here, now answer the question!"

"All right, jeez," Max thought for a second and then answered her. "It feels weird to be here. I know that I'm supposed to be here, and that I'm really on the right side now, but subconsciously there's this voce screaming that this whole thing is wrong. Really wrong."

"Do this feeling usually get stronger when your energy starts running low?"

"Yeah, how-" he stopped as she shot a death-look at him. "Right. Sorry. No more asking you questions."

"All right, Max, now listen to me. When you start running out of energy, I want you to listen to the voice that's saying everything is wrong. While you're being recharged I want you to-"

Right then the door opened, and Abigail walked in. Melissa didn't skip a beat, but immediately changed what she was saying.

"This is where you belong. Just try to stay focused more on your energy, and try not to tire yourself out too much."

"Well that won't work," Abigail whined. "I need something to keep me occupied. That's the whole reason my grandfather brought him here!"

"Yes, I realize you need something to 'occupy yourself with'," Melissa said, turning to face the new arrival, "because as I seem to remember it, the last time you had to be by yourself, you crashed a brand-new, very expensive hovercraft into the rainforest, and broke your arm all in one go."

"I got _him_ here, didn't I?" Abigail shot back poisonously.

"For now."

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

Melissa's glare was as cold as Abigail's was angry. "It means for now."

Then, she immediately changed her demeanor, and smiled dazzlingly at Abigail. "I've got some work to finish up," she said lightly. "See ya around!"

Abigail watched her leave the lab, and then turned to Max. "Let's go see what the toaster oven is doing!"

"Joy," he muttered.

_All righty, it sucked…less? More? I love feedback, as always._


	5. Lori and Veronica

_A/N: Hi guys! Sorry this took a little long to get up, but I just wasn't in the mood to write, and you know how that is. Ciao!_

Chapter 5

Pete opened the door to his apartment and found Laura Chen waiting on his front doorstep.

"Good morning, Pete," she said, smiling too broadly, "let's go inside." Without waiting for a reply, she pushed past him and strode into his apartment, grabbing his wrist and pulling him in after her.

Pete gulped and closed the door after them, knowing what was coming. Laura had been leaving messages on his answering machine for weeks, hinting, then asking, then demanding to know where Josh was.

Laura nodded towards the couch. "Sit."

"What am I, a dog? You can't come into my place and tell me what to do!"

Laura looked at him with narrowed eyes. "Watch me."

"Look," Pete tried again, "we're friends! We can have a nice, civil conversation without you bossing me around!"

"I tried that," Laura said, fixing him with a cold glare, "should we check the answering machine and see how many messages from me are on there?"

"It's broken," Pete answered lamely.

Laura rolled her eyes in response. "Do you want me to look at it for you?"

"No," Pete muttered, resignedly sitting down on the couch.

Laura sighed seeing the look on Pete's face. "Pete," she said softly, "I just want to know where Josh is. What's the big deal? If he's avoiding me, just say so. At least I'll know he's alive somewhere!"

Pete flinched inwardly at her choice of words. That seemed to be what everyone wanted to know these days.

"He went on a research trip with his physics class. Somewhere in Alaska. No phones."

"There's two things wrong with that explanation," Laura started.

_Crap_, Pete thought.

"First of all, I called Josh's dad last week, and he said Josh was on a publicity tour. I didn't know they had publicity tours in Alaska. Second of all, I'M IN HIS PHYSICS CLASS AND THIRD OF ALL WHY WOULD A COLLEGE PSYCHICS CLASS BE GOING TO ALASKA?!"

"Um, that's…three reasons."

"PETE!!!!!!!"

"WHAT?!"

Laura stood and stared at him for a few seconds, then pulled out a scrap of paper with something scribbled on it from her pocket. She showed Pete what was written on it, holding it just out of his reach.

Pete squinted at the paper, and then paled as he saw what was on it.

"Recognize this phone number, Pete?"

"You wouldn't," he gasped.

"I would," she said menacingly. "Now, either you tell me where Josh is, or I will call Lori and tell her how you've been drooling over her since high school."

"No!!!!" Pete leaped up from the couch and made a swipe for the paper, but missed, lost his balance, and ended up on the floor.

"Four-five-eight…" Laura said the numbers aloud as she slowly dialed them into her cell phone."

"All right! Fine! Jeez! You're gonna get me in so much trouble!!!" Pete moaned as he clambered back onto the couch.

Laura stopped dialing. "You gonna tell me?"

Pete nodded his head miserably. "Uh-huh."

"You swear?"

"I swear."

Laura shut off the phone and stared down at him expectedly. "Well?"

"All right, you can't get mad at anyone for this, including me. Especially me. In fact, just don't get mad at me, I don't care who else you get mad at."

"Pete," Laura warned through gritted teeth, waving the cell phone through the air.

"All right, well you know how Josh is always going missing at weird times?"

"No," she answered, voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Well the company Josh's dad owns doesn't just do sporting equipment. There's another side to it…"

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In Rachel Leeds's office back at N'Tek, Eleanor abruptly dropped the stack of files she had been organizing and stood up. "Rachel, this is ridiculous."

"I don't have the faintest idea as to what you're talking about," Rachel answered, not looking up from her work.

"Bullshit."

Rachel looked up, startled. "Eleanor!" She never cursed, and was astounded to hear her clone use such language.

Eleanor sighed. "If that's what I have to do to get you to snap out of it, then so be it. I'm your clone, not your mother. We think the same way, so I know we both have the same solution in our minds. The only thing that puzzles me is why you won't voice it."

"That's an interesting question. Why don't we go ask Dr. Yevshenko?"

"No. We're going to talk about this now. He's had Max for far too long, and no one else has been able to do anything about it."

"Eleanor, I've worked very hard to keep the relationship between myself and John Dread secret!"

"And this isn't a desperate enough time to finally just let it out in the open?"

"I don't want them to treat me differently just because…"

"They'll get over it! Would you listen to yourself? Which is more important, a tiny little secret, or the return of Max and Berto?"

"You don't even know if it will work."

"Yes, I do."

"How?"

"Because we both know that John has never gotten over Veronica's death. Neither have we, or really you, rather. That's already one thing in common. Second of all, I seriously doubt he's making progress, or he would be flaunting it shamelessly by now. Third of all, he's our brother-in-law. Whether you'd like to admit it or not, John Dread is family."


	6. BreakoutBreakout?

A/N: Ugh, laziness consumes me…so lazy…

Chapter 6

Abigail walked in on Psycho delicately dismantling a swivel chair by swinging it repeatedly against a wall with all his might. She watched amusedly for a few seconds, but then had to duck as a wheel became disengaged and flew at her head. She made her presence in the room known by clearing her throat loudly.

Psycho whipped around. "Don't do that!"

"Calm down, toaster oven, you're the one smashing company property against the wall."

"Don't you have better things to do?" he growled.

"If you're talking about Max, no, he's still 'resting'."

"He wouldn't happen to be 'resting' in his room, would he?" Psycho asked, slowly edging towards the door.

"Yes, and just so you don't waste your time, Grandfather has been glued to that restraining order monitor thing all day, so don't even try."

Psycho raised an eyebrow (whether it's metallic or not I do not know) "Since when do you care about saving me time?"

"Since I need to help you with something."

Psycho swore under his breath.

"Oh, shut up. You might actually like this."

"I'm waiting."

"I want to get Steel and Martinez out of here. Right now."

"WHAT!"

"Yes. Look, we can't have any fun with them if they're on our side, right? And we can't just kill them now under Grandfather's watch-"

"Just call him Dread! The whole 'grandfather' thing weirds me out."

Abigail rolled her eyes. "Fine then. We can't kill them under _Dread's_ watch because he'd have our heads. Well, actually, just your head, but that's besides the point."

"Is there a point to this babbling?"

"Watch it, Erickson, don't forget who you're talking to." Abigail said menacingly.

Psycho stayed quiet.

"Getting to my point," she said, staring directly at him, "the only way we can be satisfied is if Max and Berto are back on the other side where we can do damage to them without repercussions."

"Well, can't you just talk Dread into letting them go?"

"No. I thought of that. He has too much pride. he probably wants them gone as much as we do, but setting them free would just be acknowledging that his entire plan was a waste of time. So, let's go."

"Where?"

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"Are you sure we should do this now? I think we should be reasonable, Eleanor! Let's just wait a few more days…"

Eleanor turned on her heel and froze Rachel with a look that Rachel herself had just perfected weeks before. "Rachel, we've waited for too long. We're going to get them now. We are not going to wait around any longer, whether that's what Jefferson Smith tells us to do or not."

"Exact replica, my left foot," Rachel muttered.

_Yeah, not that great and kind of jumpy, but it's a chapter, isn't it? I have to get back into the swing of things. Ciao!_


	7. Rise and Shine!

_A/N: Hello hello hello! Sorry last chapter was sort of short (Sarqueen lol) but I will try to make this one longer, and a little better. Last chapter just didn't flow, so it came out kind of forced. X, if you're going to tell me I suck, back it up with some constructive criticism I can actually use, all right? Ciao!_

Chapter 7

Dread looked up from his computer monitor when he heard a beeping coming from a device to his left. Giving a heavy sigh, he pressed a button on the apparatus and waited a few seconds for the visual to pop up. As he saw what had made the alarm go off, he became even more exasperated. Psycho was stealthily (or what passes for stealthy when you're partially metallic) creeping down the hallway towards Max Steel's room, where Max was currently sleeping…again.

John Dread tapped the microphone and cleared his throat. Psycho stopped in his tracks and slowly turned, staring into the camera that had emerged from the wall behind him. He waved nervously at it. "Good morning, sir."

"Might I ask what you are doing roaming the halls at 3:30 in the morning?"

"Well, sir, it's already 8:00 in the UK…"

Dread almost smiled despite himself. So the cyborg had finally learned the time difference. "We are not in the UK though, are we, my friend?"

"Uh…no, sir."

"Where were you going, Psycho?"

"Nowhere!"

"I see. Why don't you come by my office and we can have a chat?"

"Oh, no, sir. I know you'll probably want to be getting to sleep."

Dread sighed. "Not likely. I expect to see you at my door in four minutes."

Psycho groaned. "But, sir, that's half way across the base!"

Dread smiled. "Run."

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Abigail flung open the door to Berto Martinez's room and flipped on the lights.

"Rise and shine!" she said cheerfully.

Berto rolled over and reached for his glasses. "Are you insane!"

Abigail considered the question. "Maybe," she shrugged, "but that doesn't matter right now. What matters is you getting out of bed and me getting you and Max out of here right now."

Berto sat up. "Why don't I trust you?"

"You don't have to. You can stay here if you want. As I see it, you have nothing to lose. Bye!" With that she walked out of the room, giving him a backwards wave and closed the door.

Standing across the hall from Berto's room, Abigail only had to wait a minute and a half before she heard someone fumbling with the doorknob, and Berto appeared in the hallway.

"Let's go."

Abigail smiled at him and strode down the hallway to Max's room with Berto in tow.

Berto ran a little to catch up to her. "Um…won't he be able to see us?"

"No, Grandfather is distracted at the moment. Now, here's what I need you to do." Abigail stopped in front of a door halfway down the hall and pulled a keychain out of a pocket. She inserted the correct key into the lock and pushed the door open, revealing the base's security center.

Inside the room, there were two walls lined with computers, and three men moving from one to the other, monitoring the progress of each one. When the door opened, they looked up, surprised, at Abigail.

"Go away."

The three guys quickly got up and left the room.

"Aren't you worried they'll tell Dread what you're up to?"

"Employees don't get involved. They just do what they're told. Gotta love minions."

Berto slowly walked around the room, taking in all the equipment. "This was down the hall from my room the whole time and I never knew about it!"

"Funny, huh?"

"Hysterical," he answered dryly. "So, what do you want me to do?"

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"Now, I can not have any 'friendly fire' incidents occurring in my base. Do you understand me? You _must_ learn to work with Mr. Steel, as he is now on our side."

Psycho stood in front of his employer, nodding his head, and mentally cursing Abigail for making him sit through a lecture. He was not a happy cyborg. He was positioned in front of Dread's desk, so that Josh Dread would have to look forward to talk to him. Dread would not see when Abigail and Berto entered the security center, which Dread kept a constant watch over via security cameras. Of course.

Psycho sneaked glances at the monitor behind Dread's head as he saw the three security guards leave their stations and be replaced by that annoying computer whiz. Then he watched as the monitors in the security center went dim one by one, and then once they were all dim, the one behind John Dread's head also went dim.

When Dread began to look at him suspiciously, the cyborg realized that he had been staring too directly at the monitor. The man in sunglasses began to slowly turn around, following Psycho's gaze.

Realizing that he couldn't let Dread see the blank monitor just yet, Psycho decided a rage would be convenient just right then. For diversion's sake, Psycho started yelling and stomping around the small office. He broke a chair against one of the heavy oak bookshelves against the wall, and ripped his artificial face off and threw it down on the ground.

Having taken Dread's attention from the screen behind him, Psycho stood fuming.

"Feel better?" the man behind the desk asked, sounding slightly amused.

"A little," Psycho grumbled.

"You're dismissed. Please stay away from Mr. Steel."

Psycho wondered whether or not his plans for the evening would allow him to obey this order.

_All right, maybe only a little longer, but it IS longer! Yep! And hopefully better! Feedback appreciated, as always. Ciao!_


	8. Drawing A Blank on A Name For This One

_A/N: Hmmmm, shall there be a certain AU Max Steel fanfic coming out soon? Perhaps written by a certain British writer? Hehehe. ¿Quien sabe? _

Chapter 8 (almost wrote Chapter 7)

It was Max's turn to be woken up next. Abigail flashed the lights a few times, and yelled at the sleeping lump completely under the covers. "GET UP!"

The lump moved and said "Not unless there's food."

Abigail rolled her eyes, strolled over to the bed, and tried to yank the covers off. However, the lump put up a fight, and would not relinquish said bed sheets.

Greatly angered by the lump's resistance, Abigail settled the quarrel by walking over to the bed stand and grabbing the pitcher of water on it. She calmly picked it up, walked over to the bed, and dumped its contents onto the lump.

The lump yelped, and jumped out of its now soggy bed, shedding off layers until the lump was no longer a lump, but in fact, Max Steel. Max gave Abigail a dirty look.

She shrugged. "You made me do it. Now let's go, you're leaving."

"No," Max said determinedly, "I'm not under your control. I don't have to do what you tell me to."

Melissa walked by the open door. "Not the time, Max."

"Hey, how'd you know what was-"

"NO ASKING ME QUESTIONS!"

Abigail stood for a few moments, tried to figure out this exchange, and decided she and Scientist 378 would have to spend a little quality time together later.

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Eleanor got behind the wheel of a black convertible and waited for Rachel to hesitantly get into the passenger's seat. The second Rachel was seated, Eleanor hit the gas, and the car zipped out of the underground garage.

"Eleanor, why are you in such a rush, we don't even know where we're going!"

"I do."

"Where then?" Rachel would've tapped her foot impatiently as Eleanor formed her response, but the motion didn't have the same significance when the executer was sitting down.

"We are going to meet a representative of Dread at a specified location, and will be escorted from there to his base to have a chat with him."

Rachel turned in her seat and stared at her double. "'You know, _I_ never have suicidal tendencies."

"I'm not suicidal, I'm perfectly reasonable." Rachel turned back and stared at the road in front of her. Eleanor could barely hear her say something about exact replicas.

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Abigail walked back into the control room and caught a glimpse of a chess game on one of the monitors before it was minimized. Berto turned around in his swivel chair to face them.

"Hey, genius, if that was a chess game I just saw, you better have already done your job."

"Like it would take me that long? Finished it a few minutes after you left." He brought up the chess game again. "Now I just have two more moves to checkmate…"

"Two moves too many. It's time to go."

"But-"

"Do you want to get out of here or not!"

Berto looked sadly at the almost-complete chess game and then followed Abigail.

"Good boy. You too, Max. Either we go now, or you can go say hi to Psycho. That clever little restraining-order gadget Grandfather has is currently out of commission, so I daresay he'd like to say hello…"

Max stuck his tongue out at her behind her back, but followed her anyway.

"I saw that, you moron."

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The racket Kat and Jet were making died down just in time to hear Jefferson Smith's voice come over the loudspeaker. "Kat Ryan and…guest, please report to my office ASAP."

As they surveyed the mess they had made when left to their own devices in the cafeteria, the two did not regret being pulled away from the scene before they had a chance to clean up.

However, the tone in Smith's voice did not make them exactly rush to get to his office, either. Hopefully this was not about what had happened to the fax machine.

Upon finally arriving at the man's office, Kat knocked on the door, was buzzed in, and entered with Jet close behind her.

Noticing that they were not out of breath as usual, Jefferson rolled his eyes. "The one time you didn't race." Instead of asking his agents to sit down, as was customary for the man, he instead got right down to business. "Rachel and her clone were just seen leaving the premises in one of our cars. Black convertible, license plate BTW452."

Kat and Jet waited, wondering exactly what Smith wanted them to do with this information.

"Eleanor was driving."

"Oh," they both said. Lately all at N-Tek had observed that Eleanor had been becoming less and less Rachel-like as time went on. The day before yesterday, the clone had actually neglected to make her bed after waking up. Very weird. Dr. Yevshenko had checked for mutations in genetic structure, but had found none. She had supposed that Eleanor had just begun to develop her own personality in response to having someone so similar to her.

Jefferson looked stressed. "I want you two to follow them."

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Abigail, Max, and Berto walked quickly down the darkened hallways to the underground exit of the base, where an elevator led to a gardening shed above ground. John Dread was a fan of irony.

Berto had programmed the power settings so that all power to the base would shut off except for the power to Dread's office, so he hopefully wouldn't notice anything. Hopefully. The power was supposed to go back on in fifteen minutes, in which time the three of them should be able to take the elevator up. The cameras and security systems would turn back on in twenty-five minutes, so Berto and Max would be able to get out without being seen.

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Psycho had gotten halfway down the hallway before realizing that Dread would see a blank screen if he turned around. He'd automatically know something was wrong and ruin the whole plan. The cyborg tore off one of his boots, ran back to Dread's office, opened the door, and hurled the boot at the blank screen.

Dread didn't flinch, but stared expressionlessly at Psycho as he brushed shattered glass off the back of his shirt.

"Sorry," the cyborg said as he backed out of the office. Closing the door behind him, he walked lopsidedly down the hall (only wearing one boot, mind you) and stopped in front of another door. Finding it unlocked, he stepped into Abigail's office and shut the door behind him.

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Kat and Jet pulled up outside a French Cafè on the outskirts of town about ten minutes after Eleanor and Rachel had arrived there. For once, Kat decided to do some observation before going right into a situation, and was rewarded a few minutes later when she saw Rachel being escorted by another women to a black limousine waiting across the street.

"Where's?" Jet wondered aloud.

"I don't know. Dammit, why'd she have to go and pull a Steel move!" Kat cried exasperatedly.

"She didn't, thank you very much."

Jet and Kat turned to find either Rachel or Eleanor standing behind the car they had taken, a red sports car. Noticing this, Rachel/Eleanor smiled. "Was this the most inconspicuous car you could find to tail someone in?"

Kat pointed to Jet. "It was her idea."

Jet made a face at her.

Kat hesitated as the blonde woman got into the car. "Um, not to be rude or anything, but which one are you?"

"It's Rachel," Rachel said. "Now, are we going to follow that car or not?"

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Eleanor hoped Rachel had been right about Kat and Jet being sent to follow them. While there was no reason for her plan not to have worked, she had to admit, it was always a good feeling to know you had backup. Looking across the seat, she saw the woman who had escorted her into the car peel off her face, revealing none other than Dragonelle. (By the way, does anyone else seriously not like that name?)

"Of course," Eleanor muttered.

Dragonelle raised her eyebrows. "You were expecting anyone else?"

"Not really, no," Eleanor admitted.

"Fine then. Put this on," Dragonelle said as she tossed a blindfold at Eleanor. "I trust you won't be playing children's games and trying to peek out the sides?"

"Certainly not."

"Oh, and when we arrive, you may inform your friends that it is fine they followed us here, but they will not be accompanying you inside."

_All righty, I'm trying to wrap this one up in less than 14 freaking chapters or however long the last one was, so this might seem a little rushed. If it seems TOO rushed, tell me and I'll slow down a little. I thought it was getting a little long and boring, so I'm trying to trim it down a little. Reviews appreciated, as always. Ciao! _

_P.S. Anybody else getting snow today?_


	9. Jeff's Little Dream

_A/N: Please disregard this chapter for your own good. I warned you._

Chapter 8 and a Half

After Kat and Jet left his office, Jefferson Smith decided to put his head down on his desk and take a nap. As soon as he reached the half-asleep half-awake point, he knew he shouldn't have decided to take this nap. He suddenly realized that this nap would be a severe mistake because he knew what his dreams were going to be of. His hippie days.

After what seemed like an hour of drifting through mental time and space, Jefferson Smith was suddenly plopped down in the middle of a very large crowd of people who did not smell very nice. The man did not even have to open his eyes to know where he was or what he was wearing. However, he could not help it, and was soon bombarded with the sight of Woodstock in all its glory. Its hazy, reeking, hallucinating, glory.

Smith took a quick step back as a guy with seriously dilated pupils ran past screaming something the government being run by the crocodile-like aliens locked in Area 51. Jefferson bumped into something in his haste to get out of the man's path, and turned around to see a full-length mirror, along with a full-length view of himself.

There he was, exactly as he had been all those years ago, in his bell-bottoms, classic tie-dye t-shirt, and of course, his two foot high afro. Smith groaned every time he saw the stupid poodle-like thing sitting on top of his head. However, one upside of being back in his hippie body was the body itself. Smith was about half the size he currently was back in the real world where he supposed he was probably drooling on some important papers.

Studying himself in the mirror, Smith suddenly remembered why he had loved weed so much. It made this get-up look good. Jefferson rolled his eyes and backed away from the mirror. He navigated his way through the psychotic crowd and found a stand selling what he wanted. Smith paid the scraggly, filthy-looking guy ten bucks and walked away, taking a lighter out of his pocket and rolling up his…"health food". It was only a dream. _Besides_, he told himself as he inhaled deeply, _when in Rome…_ However, he forgot the end of that statement because this huge dancing mushroom on the stage looked like it would be really fun to chase…

_Did you just read this? DID YOU JUST FREAKING READ THIS! I TOLD YOU NOT TO READ IT! Great, now you're insane too. Now we're both screwed. Congrats. And please don't send me any reviews telling me how messed up I am. Believe me. I know._


	10. Great, Now The Numbering's All Screwed U...

_A/N: All right, random thought here. If Roberto in Spanish is Robert in English, wouldn't you think that Berto in Spanish is Bob in English? Hmmmmm. Although I'm a fan of Bob, I think I like Berto more. Just thought I'd share. I'd also like to apologize for the last chapter about Jefferson. Really. I'm truly sorry. Breaks into hysterical laughter_

Chapter 9

Jefferson Smith woke up to find a huge pool of drool on top of a paper concerning a report he had just been about to fax to the UN concerning N-Tek gaining permission to establish a recon post in the Middle East. Looking at the puddle that had soaked through the sheet of paper, Jeff groaned. If he couldn't be responsible for a piece of paper, how was he supposed to persuade the United Nations that he could be responsible for a spot in a potentially explosive situation half-way across the world?

Smith tapped a button on his phone and opened an intercom link to his secretary, Lilly.

"What is it, sir?" asked the old woman in a voice roughened from many decades of cigarette usage.

"I need you to re-print the UN report for me."

"Why?"

"Because I pay your salary, that's why!"

"No, you don't."

"Excuse me!"

"Valerie, down in accounts payable pays my salary. If you look at my paycheck, it has her signature on it."

"Well, you work for me so just print the damn thing out!"

"Why don't you tell me why you need me to print it out again?"

"Because I do."

"Well, twelve pages is an awful waste of ink, you should at least tell me why I need to print it out again!"

Jefferson Smith was not about to inform his secretary that she had to reprint the report because he had drooled on it while dreaming about his hippie days. No. Wasn't happening. "Forget it, I'll do it myself," he grumbled and hit the button to sever the intercom connection. He reminded himself to start looking for a new secretary when this whole mess was over.

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"I see her!" Jet hissed as she peered through a grate that allowed her to look into the room below her. That's right. Jet, Kat, and Eleanor were in yet another air shaft. You'd think Dread would've learned to increase air shaft security by now. Or maybe the author of this fic should come up with a new way for N-Tek operatives to get in and out of enemy bases. I'm open to suggestions. Sorry about that. Back to Jet, Kat, and Eleanor.

Rachel was sitting alone in a white room, on a swivel chair, seemingly waiting for something. She looked up as she heard Kat rapping lightly on the vent with her knuckles. Seeing the three agents all looking through the same twelve inch by twelve inch square, Rachel rolled her eyes. Kat waved to her, but Rachel merely blinked, letting them know that she may be under observation, and couldn't simply wave to the ceiling without being noticed. Kat was concerned, and offered a thumbs up sign with a questioning look, making sure her friend was all right. Rachel made a move to fix her hair, concealing the thumbs up sign she gave Kat in return to any observers.

"She's all right," Kat whispered to the two others she currently shared the air shaft with.

"Thank you, Dr. Obvious," Jet whispered back.

"Knock it off, you two. We don't have time for this."

Kat caught a glimpse as Rachel rolled her eyes again, probably overhearing the conversation that was going on ten feet above her head. The blonde in the room below didn't look up, but made a subtle movement with her hand that seemed to signal "can we move along, please?"

The only non-clone in the air shaft waved again, and signaled that Jet and Eleanor should follow her.

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"All right, genius and science project-"

"Hey!" Max protested.

"Shut up. I'll call you whatever the hell I want to call you. And don't worry, the next time we meet, we won't have to…play nice." Abigail said those last words with extra malice, and Max gulped.

"All right, well how is this going to work?" Berto asked, breaking the silence, nervously looking back and forth in between Abigail and Max.

"I'll tell you how this is going to work. As soon as we see those lights shut off," the redhead gestured back towards the base, "we'll know the power's shut off. Unless Dr. Martinez here screwed up."

"Not likely," Berto muttered.

Max shot an angry look at Abigail, knowing her last statement had been added just to piss Berto off. Max needed Berto to be clearheaded in case Abigail decided to double cross them, which wasn't completely out of the question.

"Anyway," she continued, "when those lights go off, it will mean the power to the gardening shed, including security system, has been shut down. We go through the door, and wait for the power to come back on. Because there are cameras inside the elevator, we'll have five minutes to get to the ground level and for you two to get away. Got it?"

"Sure."

The three stood silently until they saw the base dim and fade slowly into the still-dark dawn.

"Let's go," Abigail led the way into the elevator.

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"What the hell!"

The three N-Tek agents had been creeping around in the ventilation system, peering into rooms through vents when they got to them, when suddenly someone hit the lights.

"You think they're onto us?"

"No…they couldn't be."

"I don't like this, we should get out of here."

"Not without Berto and Max!"

"Fine, then let's hurry it along shall we?"

"Oh, and how do you propose we do that, Ms. Leeds?"

"Don't you have a flashlight?"

"A flashlight beam from an air conditioning vent exploring darkened rooms in a DREDD base? You don't think that would be the least bit suspicious?"

"You think of something then!"

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Rachel had just been led to John Dread's office when the lights went out. _Impeccable timing_, she thought, rolling her eyes. Deciding that she had gotten too far to quit now, Rachel entered the office anyway.

Dread looked up at her as she entered. "It's been a while."

Rachel stood in front of his desk, as there was no chair there, Psycho having smashed it half an hour before. "That it has."

"Glow stick?" Dread's outstretched hand offered her a glowing plastic tube. "This sort of thing happens too often."

Rachel took the glow stick. "Thank you."

"I'm afraid it's standing room only in here," he said, gesturing around the office.

"That's all right, I don't plan on staying long."

"Shame."

"Yes, quite."

"Well then, may I ask why precisely you are here?"

"N-Tek wants Max Steel and Dr. Roberto Martinez back."

"I see." The man slowly turned his chair around, and stared at the window, seeming to be thinking. Rachel waited patiently for a few minutes, and then her brother-in-law turned his chair back around. "How about this. I'll let you search the base with your three friends who are currently stumbling about in my ceiling. However, when the lights come back on, you no longer have my protection from…certain cyborgs."

"Thank you," Rachel was uncertain, but knew an opportunity when she saw one. She walked briskly to the door, turned around, and tossed the glow stick back to Dread, who caught it in his left hand.

This stopped Rachel. She looked curiously at the man. "I seem to remember you being right-handed."

"Things change," he answered softly. He hesitated then spoke again. "Would it be entirely out of the question to see you again sometime?"

If Rachel was a bit surprised by the whole glow stick catching business, she almost stumbled when she heard this. "You don't mean…"

"Not romantically of course. Veronica was the only one I've ever loved. I just feel we have something in common, which is perhaps why you chose to come talk to me instead of sending someone else?"

"I'll be in touch," Rachel promised sincerely. Then she exited the office, not quite sure what she had agreed to and ran down the hallway, calling the names of the five other N-Tek operatives believed to be in the base along with her.

Psycho opened the door from inside Abigail's office, looking into the hall to see the cause of such noise. He recognized Rachel Leeds, an N-Tek agent racing psychotically down the hallway, but he did nothing about it. Such matters were no longer his concern.


	11. Escaping is a Nasty Business

_A/N: Yay! A week off from school equals…lots of chapters being written! I'm beginning to think that UKHoneyB is my muse in disguise…hmmmm. Could be. Anyway, thanks to all my oh-so-devoted readers. I promise if I ever win the lottery, I would give all of my reviewers a dollar. I give you my word. Oh, and by the way, I was rereading what I had written so far, and I noticed I made a small mistake. In chapter 8, Rachel was the one with Kat and Jet by the end, but in Chapter 9 I had Eleanor being with Kat and Jet. Whatever. It's supposed to be Eleanor. Does that make ANY sense?_

Chapter 10

Kat, Jet, and Eleanor paused in their search via air ducts when they heard someone calling their names.

"Rachel?" Jet asked incredulously. "Is that Rachel running around an enemy base yelling our names at the top of her voice?"

"I think so," Eleanor answered uncertainly.

"She's lost it," Kat said, shaking her head.

All of the sudden, the voice was directly below them. "I've most certainly _not_ lost it, Ms. Ryan, and if you ever want to find Max and Berto in this labyrinth, I suggest you three stop crawling around in the ceiling and help out!"

Eleanor looked confused.

Kat shrugged. "It's definitely Rachel. Let's go. Search now, demand explanation later."

With that, she pried open the nearest grate and worked her way out of the ventilation system, motioning for Jet and Eleanor to follow her.

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Max, Berto, and Abigail had been waiting inside the "gardening shed" for only a few minutes when the lights came back on. Abigail motioned to the awaiting elevator. "Shall we?"

The three got into the elevator, and Abigail pressed a green button very obviously marked "G".

"Imagine if the elevator broke down after all this," Berto muttered.

"Bro, I _so_ do not want to think about that right now," Max groaned.

"Oh, please. I assure you, my grandfather's organization can make a functioning elevator," Abigail said, rolling her eyes.

"They sure can't make a portable generator," Berto quipped.

"Do you want to start with me in an enclosed space!"

"Knock it off," Max said as he stepped in between them. Then he took a look at how angry Abigail was, and decided that being close to her might not be the best idea at the moment.

They felt the elevator stop moving as they reached the ground level. While they waited for the doors to open, Abigail seemed to consider Max for a moment. "Hey, science project, can I ask you something?"

While unsure if he really wanted to know what she was going to ask or not, he said "Um, okay."

"How come you stayed in Max mode the entire time you've been here?"

"I've noticed that too," Berto agreed, now also looking curiously at Max.

Max looked surprised by the question. "I don't know, I guess I'm just used to not being Josh when I'm being seen by N-Tek related people. No big thing."

"All right," Abigail didn't sound completely convinced, but she let the issue drop.

A few seconds later, the doors opened with a low 'ding' and Max and Berto rushed to get off the machine. Abigail stayed in the car and watched them get off. Then she stood there and waved goodbye as the doors closed behind them.

"If I never saw her again, it'd be too soon," commented Max.

"You said it, Hermano."

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Rachel waited, trying her hardest not to laugh as first Kat, then Jet tumbled out of the air shaft and landed on their backs. She was then overcome with a surge of pride as Eleanor neatly jumped down and landed on her feet.

"Show off," Jet mumbled, rubbing her back.

"Good to see you all," Rachel said, smiling.

"Same here," Eleanor replied.

"Yeah, yeah," said Kat, "we're all happy to see each other, now how are we going to find Steel and Martinez?"

"Well aren't we impatient?" Eleanor quipped.

Jet stuck her tongue out at her.

"Please," Rachel held up her hands, calling for a truce. "Now, as far as I know, John Dread is unaware of the cloning situation. I would like to keep I that way for its value as a shock tactic. So, we'll split up and take opposite ends of the base. Kat and I will head this way-" Rachel gestured towards a long hallway, "and Jet and Eleanor can go that way-" she pointed at a flight of stairs leading to another level of the base. "We should all avoid being seen together."

"Got it," Jet said, and the four N-Tek agents ran off to search the base for their lost friends.

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Abigail took the elevator back down to the level from which she had come. Leaning against one of the walls of the coffin-like enclosure, she waited for the machine to make its leisurely way down. She was pleased to see that the lights in the base had not yet come back on. This meant there would be no cameras making her participation in the breakout of Dr. Roberto Martinez and Max Steel known to anyone.

Feeling very self-satisfied, the red-head all but skipped back to her office. She looked forward to sitting back down in her soft leather chair and maybe demolishing some opponents on computer-chess. While very inferior to her grandfather in the game, she was nonetheless a very formidable player.

She continued to walk down the hall, enjoying the sound of her high-heeled boots clicking along the floor tiles. Such a terrifying sound to her enemies. She smiled at that, and thought of ways to bring about the downfall of Max Steel on their next encounter.

Finally getting to her office, she opened the mahogany door, stepped in, closed it behind her, and walked across the office to sit down in her chair. She didn't turn on the lights, partially because she enjoyed the darkness, and also because they wouldn't have come on anyway. The power was still out.

Instead, she reached into a desk drawer and pulled out a glow stick. Grandfather had wanted to equip the base with earthquake lights, but she rather enjoyed glow sticks. So, in spite of occasional comments from DREDD minions on such a powerful evil organization having to rely glow sticks, John Dread had stuck to them. Besides, he liked them as well.

Abigail leaned back in her chair, and put her feet up on her desk. She sat there, enjoying the silent darkness around her. Only all of the sudden, it wasn't silent anymore. Hearing a metallic laughter, she bolted up out of her chair. She recognized that laugh.

"Erickson!" she raged.

The cyborg formerly known as Erickson reached over and switched on the lights, which flickered a bit, but _did_ come on.

Abigail glowered at him. The bastard had been standing there the whole time! Then, she paled a bit as Psycho pointed his metallic claw-equipped arm at her. The laser!

Reflexively, Abigail ducked behind the desk. She fumbled for the key that should've been hanging from a chain around her neck, but it wasn't there. Trying the drawer anyway, she found it was unlocked. Thanking her luck, she reached in and carefully grabbed the button. The one she hadn't actually held in her hands since the day Erickson had become Psycho. It looked like a square remote control with a big red button in the middle. A standard detonator.

She stood up and brandished the button at the cyborg. "You know what this is," she said menacingly. "Now, back off and don't make me press the button."

Instead of backing off, however, Psycho just took careful aim at her head.

"Have it your way," she spat, and pushed the button. Time seemed to stop, and as soon as she pressed the button, she knew something was wrong. Psycho's face seemed…triumphant, not enraged as it should have been. Then she realized that the drawer shouldn't have been unlocked. Luck or no luck. This wasn't the button. It was, however, a button.

While Abigail stood frozen on the spot, she heard the rumbling of an explosion. Psycho picked up Abigail's huge desk and threw it down on top of her. Smiling that mechanical grin, he waved his claw at her and ran out the door, leaving her struggling under the enormous desk.

She struggled for what seemed like hours, but what must've only been a matter of minutes. Then she realized she would not be able to free herself, and watched through the open door of her office as the hallway exploded into flame.

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Kat and Rachel had been searching a room full of lab equipment when they too, heard a rumbling.

Kat looked panicked. "Are you sure we're nowhere near Niagra Falls?" she tried to joke, but felt sick to her stomach.

Rachel shook her head. "We have to get out of here."

Kat's eyes widened. "But what about the others!"

"Everyone can take care of themselves, let's go!"

Kat stood with her arms crossed. "I'm not leaving anyone!" she said adamantly.

"That's not your decision to make! Let's go right now!" Grabbing a hold of Kat's arm, Rachel began running down the hall towards the stairwell.

Kat cursed as she was pulled along behind Rachel, realizing that the blond agent was a lot stronger than she looked. Eventually, she shook off the older woman's arm, but kept running next to her. She knew Rachel was right. They had to focus on getting themselves out first. They were no use to anyone if they were dead.

Finally getting to the stairwell, Kat became extremely thankful that she was not a heavy smoker. Having to run up ten flights of stairs to get to the ground level of the base was not the easiest task to complete under pressure, especially with the ceiling threatening to cave in on your head.

Reaching the top of the last staircase ahead of Kat, Rachel flung open the door to meet a scene of complete chaos. Flames were everywhere, and Dread minions were running for their lives. Ignoring the heavy smoke, she and Kat ran for the door. They were given a clear path, as John Dread's security guards had other things to worry about. Their own lives, for one.

Almost at the door, the two agents felt the floor shake with another explosion. Debris rained down from the ceiling, and Rachel sped up, racing through the door. Out of harm's way, she turned around to see Kat about 10 yards behind her. Rachel looked above the door and saw a large slab of cement coming loose.

"KAT!" she screamed.

Somehow managing to hear her above the cataclysmic sound all around her, Kat sped up and dove through the doorway, rolling out of the building as the cement collapsed where she had been a few seconds before.

Rachel reached over and activated the tracking device embedded in her left boot. She and Kat dragged themselves behind a boulder and watched, stunned, as the base burn and crumble. A few minutes later, Rachel recognized the welcome sight of the Behemoth blocking out the sun, and then blacked out.


	12. Last Chapter

_A/N: All right, I actually planned this one out during class, so if it sounds too stiff let me know. Ciao! _

Chapter 11

Max walked into the console room and found what he had expected; Berto hunched over his keyboard typing furiously. Max walked over to his friend and looked over his shoulder to see what the younger agent was working on. Berto, engaged in what he was doing, didn't look up, so Max made a motion to turn off the monitor. An alarm sounded, and Berto smiled. "A new defense system," Berto explained. "Now, no one but me can touch my console without the alarm going off."

Max raised his eyebrows at his friend. "Berto, you don't have to worry about that anymore. No one's going to mess with your console."

Berto looked tired. "I just want to be sure."

The two shared a silent moment, but were then interrupted by Dr. Yevshenko's voice yelling in the hallway. "Ms. Ryan! You're not ready to leave the medlab!"

This was answered by a more familiar voice. "Like hell I'm not!"

Max smirked and Berto rolled his eyes. They hadn't seen Kat or Rachel for months, but from what they were hearing, their partners hadn't changed that much.

A few seconds later, Kat strode into the room, and stood there, staring at both of them. Unsure of what to do, Max and Berto stared back at her until she broke the silence. "IF YOU TWO EVER DO THAT AGAIN I WILL KILL YOU BOTH BEFORE DREAD HAS THE CHANCE!"

The two cowered, expecting Kat to continue to vent her rage, and Max was surprised when instead, she ran up to him and hugged him. As soon as his mind registered that he wasn't going to be seriously maimed, she had stopped hugging him and moved onto Berto.

Max looked on in shock as she held Berto tight for a full ten seconds, and then strode out of the room.

Berto looked just as amazed as Max was, and both were silent again as they listened to their teammate's footsteps fade until they were audible only to Max's ultra-sensitive hearing.

Berto continued to look puzzled. "Um, what was that?"

"I think she just…hugged us."

"That's what I thought," Berto said slowly, not ceasing to look bewildered.

"Well, I do know one thing," Max said, as an evil grin surfaced on his face.

Berto narrowed his eyes. "What's that?"

"She hugged you for a full five seconds more than she hugged me."

"No she-"

"Yep. She did. Come on, let's go visit her."

Berto hugged his console. "What're you crazy? Forget it."

Max shrugged. "Your choice."

Ignoring his friend's protests, Max picked Berto up in a fireman's carry and walked out the door. Knowing what Max had in mind, Berto pounded Max's back with his fists, and started yelling in Spanish. Max ignored the younger agent; he could hardly feel the impact of Berto's fists, and he did not speak a word of Spanish, so he had no way of knowing what, exactly, his friend was yelling at him.

It was a long walk through the hall to Kat's on-base quarters, and after a few minutes, Berto stopped struggling, but continued to mutter in Spanish. Finally, Max caught a single phrase of English that he only heard because of his enhanced hearing. "I never should've recharged you when we got back."

Three or four minutes after that, Max started to get tired. True he had just been recharged, and true Berto did not weigh a lot, but the scientist _did_ weigh _something_. Berto was aware of this change in his friend, and took the opportunity to try to escape. Letting himself go limp, he slid from his friend's shoulder, and took off running down the hallway. Max, however, was still faster, and dove towards the younger agent, catching him by the ankle. Berto yelled in frustration, but Max ignored him once again and continued down the hallway.

Jake Nez was walking down the hallway and saw Max turning the corner. Glad to see his fellow agent back, he began to say hello to Max. However, Jake was stopped as he saw Berto being dragged behind the nano-powered agent. Nez saw that Berto had his arms crossed against his chest, was keeping his head lifted off the floor as he was dragged down the hallway, and was still insulting Max in Spanish. Unlike Max, Nez could speak Spanish, and chose not to ever repeat what Martinez was muttering in polite company.

Max waved at Nez, but continued down the hallway, not stopping to have a conversation. Jake Nez stood where he was, attempting to process what he had just seen, but then decided he did not want to know, and left it at that.

After encountering Nez, it was only one minute more before Max and Berto arrived outside of Kat's room. Max opened the door, pushed Berto into the room, and quickly closed the door again and held it shut. Realizing that when Kat and Berto finally got out, he would be in serious trouble, Max tore the doorknob off the door. Deciding to leave the two alone, Max ran back down the hallway the way he had come and decided to go see Rachel in the medlab.

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Just as Max arrived at the door of the medlab, Rachel was walking out of it.

Max looked at his former partner, surprised. "What are you doing out here? I thought-"

"Good to see you too." the blond agent said, rolling her eyes, "Now let's get out of here. Yevshenko's distracted with one of her experiments going wrong."

"Um…sure," Max said, as he allowed himself to be pulled away from the door. "Won't she be-"

Rachel turned and stared at him sternly.

Max shut up. "Never mind," he said quickly.

"That's better."

The two walked silently down the hallway together, neither knowing exactly what to say. After what seemed an eternity, Rachel broke the silence. "I missed you," she said quietly.

The two continued walking, Max staying quiet. After a few minutes, he responded. "I missed you too."

The awkward silence after his response was almost painful. Finally, Rachel couldn't take any more of it. She had been worrying about him for six months, and now she had nothing to say to him? She cleared her throat, again not knowing what to say, but also knowing that she had to say _something_. "We should really start up your training again soon. You've probably lost a step while you were gone."

Max refused to take his eyes off his feet. "Maybe we should talk about that over dinner tonight."

Rachel winced.

Max felt like hitting himself in the head with something heavy. Of course, Rachel didn't believe in the whole co-worker relationship thing. "Uh…sorry. That was out of line."

Rachel looked surprised. "No, that's not it at all, trust me. I would really like to…" she hesitated. "It's just that I already have an appointment that I can't break."

Just to her luck, Jake Nez took that opportunity to walk by and wave to her, who waved back awkwardly.

As Nez continued on down the hallway, Max looked from him to Rachel, then back again, and gave Rachel a suspicious look.

Rachel rolled her eyes. "No, Max, I don't have plans with Jake tonight." Max visibly relaxed, and Rachel laughed. "Now, if you're done being paranoid, I'm not busy tomorrow night." Rachel smiled as Max's face brightened.

The two had stopped in front of the door to Rachel's office, and Rachel knew it was time to say goodbye for the time being. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have work to do." With that, she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and let herself into her office, leaving the younger agent standing frozen to the spot in the hallway.

What the ever-so-vigilant Rachel had not realized, however, was that someone had been watching her from inside her own office.

"How…sweet," a voice came from the shadows near her desk.

Rachel sighed. "You're in my chair."

John Dread immediately got up and moved to another chair on the other side of the desk. "My apologies."

She sat down in her chair. "Now, let's get down to business."


End file.
